So you've got your enemy on the ropes (literally or figuratively), and you feel the need to really rub it in that you've won. Or your enemy's got you on the ropes, and it's time for desperate measures to turn things round. What should you do? In fiction, one option is the Take That Kiss. (TV Tropes makes no guarantees for how well this works in Real Life, so Don't Try This at Home, or at least don't come crying to us if you do and it fails or backfires.)

While the Take That Kiss sometimes serves to confirm previous Foe Yay vibes, it may also be the only thing in the characters' exchanges that suggests Foe Yay at all, and it will typically be more of a taunting/patronizing/desperate/tricksterish/arrogant domination display than a romantic/sexy come-on - though it's quite often played as an ironic version of a come-on, or possibly some kind of complicated double-bluff.

For related reasons, it's usually not a "Shut Up" Kiss, at least of the core variety that leads to two characters finally getting together, if only for a while, and no slapping need be involved, before or after. If there is UST or Belligerent Sexual Tension though, expect this trope to feature somewhere, at least as long as one of the parties is Genre Savvy enough to pick up on it.

The idea isn't necessarily specifically to mock or antagonize, though. It usually seems more like a non-verbal Take That, though not always aggressive or hostile, and can be more of an affectionate sending-up or one-upping.

In effect, the "message" can range from "Try anything else, and I'll pull the plug on your career as well as make fun of you in public" (the Riget example, below) through "I'm not going to let your hostility stop my aggravating exuberance" (Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker) to "So you just told a memorable fable about the problem of evil that explicitly challenges all I'm thought to stand for, and now you're expecting a counter-argument? Well, actually, I'm just going to do something ambiguous and non-verbal that will nonplus you and everybody else" (The Brothers Karamazov).

While this is most commonly pulled by villain(ish) characters, it can also be done by a Designated Hero, or (as in the Heathers and Riget examples) by characters whose morality tends to the ambiguous. Examples of full-on good characters doing this are more rare - but see The Brothers Karamazov examples.

If that all seems a lot to read into an ambiguous and often completely non-verbal act, that hopefully just proves the point, but feel free to intone Bellisario's Maxim if desired.

A common subtype of the trope is for a character to kiss someone as a Take That to some third party.

Blowing kisses can be a way of achieving a similar, if milder, mocking effect at a safe(r) distance.

Examples:

Later, Akise gives one to Yukki, partly out of love, partly to piss Yuno off. It worked.Or not.

In Hana-Kimi, while the school doctor Umeda is lecturing the main characte Mizuki's homophobic older brother on why he's being unreasonable towards his sister, he grabs him by the neck tie and kisses him (as the author put it) "Just to piss him off".

In Naruto, the titular character is having a friendly fight against The (Soon to be) fifth Hokage, the Granny Tsunade. Altough Naruto managed to pulled his brand new technique, she manages to put him against the ropes. When he awaits to receive an earth-shattering punch, he instead have his efforts rewarded with a kiss in the front. Oooow...

In the Noir episode where Mireille and Kirika have to confront "The Intoccabile" — a woman whom the normally unflappable Mireille has been terrified of since childhood — the Intoccabile comes and speaks to Mireille herself to rub in the fact that Mireille is powerless against her because of her fear. She backs her into a balcony railing and then forces a kiss on her. Mireille tries to punch her, but the Intoccabile just catches her arm. She leaves unharmed, leaving poor Mireille feeling even more powerless than ever, which of course was the whole idea.

Sae of Peach Girl is constantly attempting these on Toji, as a way to one up Momo.

Sort of played with in Dragon Ball Z in the aftermath of the first encounter with Androids 17 & 18. After the two wipe the floor with all the Z fighters except for Krillin, 18 goes over to the terrified Krillin and gives him a kiss on the cheek. While it was pretty much a mocking gesture (Krillin was the only one who didn't fight) it was the start of a relationship that would eventually see the two of them marry in the future.

In the final episode of School Days, Makoto and Kotonoha do this in order to stick it to Sekai. Needless to say, things get worse.

Done by proxy in the first part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, where Dio steals Jonathan's beloved's First Kiss to get one over on him. It backfires, as she proceeds to insult him by washing her mouth out with filthy water - the implication being he's so disgusting she doesn't want to pollute the nearby stream. He snaps, backhands her (which causes his cronies to abandon him in disgust), and ultimately this causes him far more pain than it does Jonathan.

In the manga of Hellsing as well as in Ultimate, Pip repeatedly tries to sneak a kiss from Seras Victoria. Usually to disastrous results. But then, during the siege of Hellsing manor, he's mortally wounded (riddled with shrapnel and run through by a scythe), Seras is horrifically injured (missing her arm and both eyes), and he's able to sneak in one first, and last, kiss before he dies... and then proceeds to bust out laughing that he finally did it, before offering his blood to her so she could heal up, become a full vampire, and avenge the Wild Geese (as well as just about everyone in London). It was not an insult to Seras but to the certainty of death.

And that was in reference to the one Nakago previously gave Miaka, too.

In Berserk, Griffith/Femto gives Casca a Forceful Kiss just before brutally raping her. Normally, it would be whether a kiss in the process of a rape counts as this trope, but since the only point of this horrific Kick the Dog moment was to spite Casca and Guts before killing them, you could read the whole ordeal as a particularly evil Take That.

He also tongue kisses her while raping her from behind.

In Mahou Sensei Negima!'s rushed anime, Yue Ayase pulls a fast one in front of Nodoka Miyazaki at the end of the 24th episode.

Comic Books

Hawkeye did this to Deathbird after defeating her. This went beyond his usual style, but she was an exceptionally dangerous opponent, and he defeated her by himself, and he hadn't had a fight like that in quite a while, so he was riding on exhilaration.

In Lucifer, Mazikeen, having just saved the Council of Angels' bacon and still getting grief from them for being a) female and b) a demon, enlists a human admirer for a Take That Kiss:

Beatrice, I need your help in one more thing. Passion is blasphemy in this holy place. [Beat] And I have a powerful need to blaspheme.

Similarly, in another Potter fanfiction, While Draco is taunting Harry for being predictable and a wimp, Harry kisses him in a combination of a "Shut Up" Kiss and Take That Kiss to, what else? Shut him up and piss him off.

In Arc Of Sacrifices, Peridot Yaxley kisses her sister Indigena in order to humiliate her and prove she's won.

One Naruto AU fanfic in particular revolves around this. Sasuke, still Naruto's hated rival, blackmails him with information that could get him in serious trouble with their school and kicked out and possible even to lose his home. What he wants in return? The sick satisfaction of humiliating Naruto every day by forcing him to kiss someone he absolutely despises.

Cheerilee's Garden contains two instances of this in its third chapter, both performed on Twilight by Cheerilee: the first, during the conversation between the two before Cheerilee begins torturing Twilight to death, and the second during Twilight's final moments (during which Cheerilee becomes more and more passionate as she feels her victim's life slipping away; for added disturbance value, it's even implied that Twilight's death gives her an orgasm).

In the The Legend of Zelda fic Wisdom and Courage, after successfully forcing Link to gather the Fused Shadow's pieces for her in exchange for Zelda's life, Veran decides to twist the knife even further by planting a kiss on Link right in front of Zelda for the sole purpose of torturing them both.

Film

In Remember the Titans, Sunshine thanks Bertier for his homophobic remarks by giving him a big smooch in front of the entire team. In the changing room/showers to boot. And then, when Bertier tried to plant a fist in Sunshine's face, the latter not only held his own, but managed to knock the All American on his butt.

The "love" scene from Blade Runner where Deckard ... forcibly seduces ... Rachael features a Take That Kiss. The crew called it "The Hate Scene", according to Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner.

Black Widow (1987). When FBI agent Alexandra gives Catharine a piece of "black widow" jewelry (letting her know that Alexandra knows she's a Black Widow), Catharine kisses her as a challenge (also as part of the general Les YayFoe Yay between them).

In Heathers, Veronica plants one on Heather 3 near the end, just after divesting her of Heather 1's red hairband, which Heather 3 has taken to wearing as a sign that she's now the überAlpha Bitch.

Chase plants one on Caleb in The Covenant for a rarer male on male example. Considering the most memorable moments in the movie consist of Ho Yay, Foe Yay and boys in too small speedos, it's not really surprising.

Gladiator: Either to emphasize the Foe Yay between the two characters or the villain's depravity, Commodus plants one on Maximus while stabbing him in the side right before the big Boss Battle in the Colosseum.

Averted and subverted in the film of Daredevil. As he is about to gut her with her own sai, Bullseye attempts to give Elektra a kiss before doing so. She keeps pushing him and moving him away and as soon as he's close enough to do so, he instead guts her. It follows through in the Director's Cut, while she's in the air with the sai in her gut, Bullseye delightfully succeeds in giving her a kiss.

Roger kisses Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, after which Eddie exclaims, "Don't ever kiss me again!" At the end, Eddie kisses Roger to show that he hasn't quite lost his sense of humor.

Nefertiri to Rameses in The Ten Commandments. An unusual example - she did it to show how much she loves Moses and hates Rameses. "Did you think that was a promise of what you will have? No - that was to show you what you will never have..."

* Snow White's head comes out of the mirror and quickly kisses the stunned queen on the mouth.

Snow White: I am! I am! I am the fairest!

In X-Men, Wolverine fights Mystique whilst she's disguised as himself, The audience knows which character is which when Mystique-as-Wolverine mockingly pursues her lips and makes a kissy noise at the real Wolverine.

As indicated above, The Brothers Karamazov has both Christ's kiss to the Great Inquisitor and the kiss Alyosha, inspired by it, plants on Ivan (who responds "That's plagiarism. But thank you.")

In Holes, this was the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow's signature when she murdered people.

Otto Chriek in The Truth. He arrives slightly late to the party when William De Worde goes to confront his father, and takes the man down with almost no effort, all the while talking about how easy it would be to fall off the wagon (he's a member of the Uberwald Temperance League, and thus is a vampire who has sworn off blood) and cause him no end of misery in the process...then notes that William thinks of him as a good man, and he likes William too much to destroy that image, so he sets him down, gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead, and charges him to make himself scarce before Otto changes his mind.

In book 3 of J.R. Ward's vampiric erotica series The Black Dagger Brotherhood, there is a venomous exchange of words between Handicapped Badass, Phury, and another male vampire called theReverend, about the titular brotherhood. The heated back-and-forth at last comes to a head when the Reverend insinuates rather blatantly (and very derogatorily) that Phury maintains his celibacy because he is actually gay. Phury responds by planting a kiss on the guy that is described as being akin to a "punch between faces." Needless to say, many readers were thrilled at his ironic rebuttal to the accusation.

Selia does this to Isi in Forest-Born, "like a girl kissing her favorite doll." Squick.

In Alias, Sydney Bristow and her rival Anna Espinosa exchange several Take That Kisses without actually kissing. Anna starts the trend in the episode "Parity," when she kisses the security glass separating her from Sydney, making a lipstick mark and setting off the alarms before leaving Sydney trapped.

Then there's the infamous incident on All in the Family where Sammy Davis Jr. — the Sammy Davis Jr. — poses for a picture with affable racist (yet avid fan) Archie Bunker, whereupon Davis kisses him on the cheek just before the camera snaps the picture, and exits while Archie is still stunned.

The Big Bang Theory has dueling ones, both directed at third parties: as Leonard ends his date with Leslie, Penny comes back from a date with... some guy, and both of them then proceed to kiss their respective alternate partners with rather more passion than strictly necessary or actually felt.

When Sheldon loses a wrestling match and is pinned down by Penny, Penny and Amy take advantage of his immobility by giving him multiple Take That Kisses all over his face.

An interesting case in "The Locomotion Manipulation": Sheldon is angry at Amy for tricking him into a romantic dinner, and in an attempt at mocking her, kisses her forcefully. However, he apparently finds that kissing is more pleasurable than he thought.

In The Borgias, Rodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI kisses both his main enemies in the College of Cardinals with a brilliantly smug look on his face after beating them in the Papal election.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Faith plants one of these on Buffy's forehead during one of their many showdowns (in the episode "Enemies" season 3, episode 17).

Another Buffy example — Angelus kisses Buffy after his Face-Heel Turn, and this time it is on the lips (he also kisses Spike on the forehead in the same episode).

In Chinese Paladin, Mo Yixi does this to the Saintess: he's in the midde of a Drowning Our Romantic Sorrows binge; she tells him to snap out of it, and then he kisses her when she admits she's never been in love "but understands the principle."

In Doctor Who, the (Simm!) Master blows one of these at the Doctor, just as his army of Toclafane come down.

River Song also blows a kiss to a Smug Snake about to have her shot, right before effortlessly and stylishly thwarting him.

Not to mention Let's Kill Hitler, where she does this to the Doctor, giving him a peck on the lips as they stand very much in each others' personal space bantering. The fact that it's poisoned only serves to drive home the point.

iCarly: In the episode iSaved Your Life, Carly victoriously shuns away a girl who is hitting on Freddie by engaging him in a lengthy French Kiss right in front of the girl.

Murdoch Mysteries: The young criminal mastermind James Gillies, who was pinned under Detective William Murdoch towards the end of "Midnight Train to Kingston," passionately kisses the older man on the mouth as a distraction so that he could free himself. There have been hints throughout the series that Gillies is gay, though, so the idea of using intimate physical contact to shock his opponent most likely stemmed from his attraction towards Murdoch, who is Tall, Dark and Handsome and very smart. This is James' type, as Robert Perry (his presumed boyfriend in an earlier episode) is also cerebral, calm, good-looking, and has dark hair.

In Lars von Trier's Riget, Stig Helmer gets one of these right on the lips from his archnemesis Dr. Krogshoej, right in front of a startled morning staff assembly. (Well, okay, so Krogshoej is just one of Helmer's nemeses â€” the man has a low hostility threshold.)

In Shameless US, after Ian points out that Mickey is too afraid to kiss him.

In Skins season 3 episode 5, Freddie headbutts Cook during a fight and Cook grabs him like he's going to hurt him, but instead harshly kisses him before leaving with JJ.

Emily manages to do a Take That Kiss By Proxy in season 4. She had earlier more or less been chased out from her home by her mothers passive-agressive homophobia after she came out, but now her family is forced to live with her and her girlfriend after their house was foreclosured.

Emily: Whatever. Stay here. Don't expect me to care, because I dont!

Mom: It is just for a couple of days, dear, until we get ourself out of this pickle.

Emily: Stay out of my way. This is my house, I live here with my girlfriend, and we are having a barberque. All right?

Mom: Whatever you say, love.

[Emily walks over and kisses the hell out of her girlfriend, then leaves.]

Mom: [biting her tounge]: I-I'm gonna finish emtying the car.

Sheppard pulls one of these on Teyla in Stargate Atlantis after he wins a sparring match. The fact that he didn't get his ass kicked as usual plus the kiss are clear signs that something is very, very wrong with him.

In her first appearance on Stargate SG-1, Vala beats up Daniel pretty badly and finishs by making out with him, partly out of victory and partly because she was attracted to him. Then she headbutts him.

A rather dark version appears in one season 4 episode of The Wire: Omar Little is in prison, and a man tries to assault him with a knife. In response, he disarms the man, pushes him against a wall and kisses his ear, in a display obviously intended to make the man think he is about to be raped. Instead, Omar opts to just... give him his knife back, as it were.

In Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex, to Justin. No... not like that... Alex kisses another boy in front of Justin, to prove a point.

In the third season finale, in their first face-to-face meeting, Lilith pins Sam to the wall, grabs his face, and sticks her tongue down his throat right before she makes him watch Dean get Dragged Off to Hell.

Goldust, who in kayfabe was pretty much pansexual, would do this to his opponents occasionally. ** Exotico wrestlers had been doing it before the Georges, but then there is nothing ambiguous about the exoticos, be they Camp Straight or Camp Gay.

In the Northern Ballet Theatre's version of Romeoand Juliet: during the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, Mercutio laughs in Tybalt's face before giving him a huge, emasculating kiss in front of all the Capulets. This doesn't go down too well.

In the RSC production of theatre/Richard II, Justbefore the duel scene Richard kisses Bolingbroke in a very power-play sort of way.

Video Games

Rouge does this to Tails if he throws his fight against her in Sonic Battle.

In the third stage of the final battle of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Snake can be grabbed in a chokehold from behind by Ocelot. If the player does nothing to escape, Ocelot will kiss Snake on the cheek.

Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City will sneak in a kiss every now and then as she counters an attack and proceeds to thoroughly beat down the enemy.

In Brain Dead 13, Lance makes one, coupled with a Badass Arm-Fold, to show Fritz that he is not afraid and to dare him to give it all he's got, though our hero is still brave in the face of certain death.

A deleted scene in The Clone Wars shows Assaj Ventress running her lightsaber into Commander Colt's gut then kisses him. Watch it here.

In South Park, Cartman does this to Osama Bin Laden when he goes into full Bugs Bunny mode.

In Ben 10: Omniverse after Ben rejects Attea's offer to join the Incursean Empire, Attea smugly hits him in the back of his head with her tongue, making an exaggerated "MWAH!"

In the cartoon, "Ruffled Ruffee" from the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Music Day", Buster gives one to the Raffi Expy Ruffee when Ruffee announces that he's going to sing a song where only he knows the words.

In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Best Hedgehog", Sonic gives one to Dr. Robotnik when they get married to each other (Sonic was disguised as Lucinda, Robotnik's high school crush who was more in favor of Lucas, whom he imprisoned for 30 years).

In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo after Nya Nya the cat girl beats up Beast Boy she does this to him and pretends to flirt with him to throw him off guard so she can beat him up some more.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy